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‘American Idol’ Star David Archuleta Releases New Single For Mormon Documentary

7 Oct 2014

Headlines & Global News

David Archuleta went on hiatus from his music career to volunteer as a Mormon missionary, and he returned to add his vocals on a new song for the upcoming Mormon documentary “Meet the Mormons.”

Archuleta, a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), sings the song “Glorious” for the film, according to The Huffington Post. A music video has the “American Idol” star singing in a recording studio cut between scenes of people across the world.

Just as Christ is at the center of the LDS faith, so, too, do Mormon leaders want him at the center of a renovated museum.

The 30-year-old Church History Museum west of Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City will close its doors Oct. 6 — after LDS General Conference — to undergo a yearlong makeover of its main floor.

The change is planned to give greater emphasis to Jesus Christ and the so-called first vision of the Lord by Mormon founder Joseph Smith amid more immersive exhibits — including re-creations of the New York cabin where the church was established in 1830 and Missouri’s Liberty Jail, where Smith spent months incarcerated in 1838-39.

This is what same-sex marriage looks like now: as gay as the Mormon missionary position

7 Oct 2014

I was preparing for my mission, when I caught myself masturbating to a Men’s Health cover,” James Ord told me on Monday. The 38-year-old Salt Lake City lawyer grew up Catholic and Jewish, but converted to Mormonism as a teenager before he fully understood that he was gay – and more than a decade before he’d marry Steve Hempel and begin raising four children with him.

There are times when I have been critical about marriage in general and gay marriage in particular in these pages, but any day the US supreme court expands marriage equality across the nation is no day for cynicism. Not that much, anyway. Speaking to three queer couples the day their government saw them as equal – two returned Mormon missionaries in Utah, two moms in the Bible belt, and two lesbians in North Carolina – reminded me of why marriage equality is so important. As the supreme court affirmed the right for couples to wed in a majority of states in a sweeping expansion of gay rights, the justices didn’t just affirm the rights of couples to file taxes jointly. They affirmed the right of couples of all faiths and all races to see their families as worthy and valid of love in American society.

In the early days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, persecution was common, and many families were negatively impacted by the cruelty and brutality of others who didn’t understand or entirely rejected their beliefs.

Mob attacks and political injustice eventually sent members of the Church fleeing across the country in search of a place where they could live and worship without constant fear of attack.

But what if there was another way? Instead of running from the terror, what if there was a way to prove the validity of the Church’s doctrines and save members from the brutal persecution of the late 1830s?

A Mormon community in Utah is rocked when a young father named Jared Helm announces that his wife has run off on him. Marriage in the Church of Latter Day Saints is an eternal affair, where families are sealed to each other for all time, not just until death “parts” them. Carrie Helm, by all accounts, was not only a good wife and neighbor, but a loving mother as well. But according to Jared, she also suffered from mental illness and drastic mood swings.

Linda Wallheim, the wife of the ward’s bishop and mother of five boys, doesn’t think Jared’s story adds up. Against the instructions of her husband, she begins to snoop into the Helms’ affairs. Linda has long been wary of the secrecy and patriarchal structure of the church, not to mention more than a few of the rituals she believes have outlived their time. Now her doubts are too troubling to push aside: is the patriarchy so powerful that a man is going to get away with murder? And if the ward was unable to protect Carrie Helm from an abusive husband, how can she keep other women in her ward safe?

NOTE: This is posted for those who are interested in keeping abreast what is being said around the world about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members. MormonVoices cannot and does not guarantee the validity or truthfulness of any information reported. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of this information lies with the reader. As all information comes from other news sources and has not been independently verified, MormonVoices cannot guarantee or be responsible for the security of links in the clipping service. MormonVoices will attempt as much as possible to exclude news articles containing strongly offensive language or which lead to offensive images, but cannot guarantee that some will not slip through.

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